Washington DC- Day 2

Day 2 we headed out fairly early so that we could be at Arlington Cemetery right when it opened.

View from JFK's grave.

 The Eternal Flame (and my lovely gray hair streak)

 This wording struck me so powerfully. God truly does know who each of us are and He loves each of us.

 Standing ready for a 21 gun salute.

 We watched this funeral from afar but this person was someone important because there was a whole band and their casket was carried on a caisson. 

 Civil War mass burial site

 Nurses' section

 More food- my roommate Lora Jean worked at the Pentagon for a few years. I asked her where I needed to eat and what I needed to see. She sent us to Sine's Irish Pub. All of it was soooo good! We had artichoke dip, potato soup and fish and chips.

 We spent the rest of the day at the Holocaust Museum.

It was somber. I learned a great deal. My heart ached. I did not know that the Gypsies were just as persecuted as the Jews. I was also really bothered by the forced sterilization of multiple types of people as well as killed any one with a defect of any kind. I spent the next few days looking at anyone with a limp or in a wheelchair and thinking you are a great smart and effective member of society and yet if you lived in Hitler's world you were seen as expendable.

 Walking to the restaurant for dinner we passed a statue that said amor (it is behind us in the picture) so we stopped for a smooch.

 After dinner we stopped by the White House.

Great day with this great man!

Washington DC- The National Mall

Last Thursday, Peter and I headed to Washington DC for a weekend.

It was marvelous!

We arrived in the late afternoon and headed to the National Mall to see what we could. 

 Washington Monument- it is under construction due to repairs needed after an earthquake.

 The World War II memorial was so beautiful. I loved the reliefs on the walls and the quotes.

It was inspiring. 

 I had heard that the Lincoln Memorial was a spiritual place and I have to agree. 

He was a man for his time and I have no doubt that God had an influence in his life that allowed him to be the man that was needed at that time. 

 The Jefferson Memorial was so lovely at night.  

 I did some food research before we went and we ate some delicious food!

This is at We the Pizza and that pizza I am eating (butternut squash, carmelized onions, goat cheese, and balsamic vinegar) was one of the BEST pieces of pizza I have had in my life!

They also make their own sodas. The strawberry was better than the cream soda. 

We had a great first night and the city was beautiful!

Arabella is 5

Arabella is truly a sweet girl! 

She has a tender heart and loves to smile and make other people happy.

She makes me happy every day.

She loves to play with her brothers and sister. 

Lily tries to be like her and Jon can make her laugh so hard.

 I love that she let Lily sleep with her in her bed for quite awhile so that Lily would be happy. And with the new beds she has slept in Lily's bed several nights so that Lily would sleep better.

Arabella says, "She can sleep with me because she is my stister (that is how she says it)."

She makes so many people happy and captures hearts easily.

She can make friends in a matter of minutes and they are her best friend.

There is one little boy who said he wanted to dress up as a  knight for her royal birthday party we are having for her on Saturday so he could be "Arabella's Knight in Shining Armor".

I am so thankful she is in our family and so thankful she is calm, sweet, and easy going. 

She wears her emotions on her sleeve but there are worse things in this world. 

Arabella, your future is bright and I am honored to be your mother and 

we are blessed to have you in our family!

Happy 5th Birthday!

A New Bed

Even if we were not about to have a new baby it was time to move Lily into her own big bed.

She figured out how to climb out of her crib a while ago and after watching her do it we took the side rail off and she has been sleeping in her bed like that. 

Truthfully, she would spend some nights in her crib, some nights on the floor and other nights Arabella would say to Lily, "You can sleep with me because I am your sister and I love you."

Monday night we put up the bunk bed after we bought the mattress for the bottom bed. 

Lily was so excited about "my bed" and then when it was time to go to bed she was not so keen on the idea. We finally got her to sleep in it but only if Arabella slept by her. Thankfully it is a full size mattress. 

Arabella is a trooper because she really wants to sleep on the top bunk but again on night two she slept by Lily. On night three, Arabella slept on the top and Lily slept on the floor. 

Really, it gets to the point that we just want her to go to sleep wherever and then we will transfer if need be. She is a stinker and it is only going to get worse because in about a week her binki is going away. 

It is a cute bed and I have hopes she will love to sleep in it, someday.

Peter's Belated Birthday Present

I had a hard time coming up with a good gift for Peter's birthday. 

He needed new luggage but that was covered by our parents.

I finally 4 days after his birthday thought of a meat slicer. 

Thank you Amazon for having many to choose from and compare.

Sunday we washed it up and sliced up a ham into beautiful even slices of our desired thickness! 

Peter really wants to see if he can make some good jerky.

Final Soccer Games

Jon's last few soccer games were early morning ones and rather chilly.

 But we found ways to stay warm!

 At a make up game one night, Lily showed off her amazing skills!

 Really, I tried to get him to smile normal but I got this or something like it three times in a row. 

 Go Wombats!

Jon's coach talked us into doing a local soccer tournament last Saturday. They played 3 games that day and only scored 3 goals the whole day. The other teams were definitely more elite but the boys had a good time playing together again. And we made the most of driving to and from the soccer field. 

Way to go Jon! We hope you continue to enjoy playing soccer!

Surprising the Kids

After 2 more appointments this week we decided it was time to share our BIG news with the kids!

It was well received by all with a few tears from Jon who wanted a different kind. 

Now, we will just keep praying and having faith and look forward to April!

Halloween Dance

This song will get in your head. I have been humming it for weeks. 

These girls are so super cute!
Lily tries to still the show but the dancers can not be out done.

Halloween

We painted pumpkins for family home evening a few weeks ago. I am not certain if it was cleaner than carving them but it was safer.

The kids had a great time and they did not decay, as my kids would say, before Halloween.

 Both girls were so proud of their pumpkins. 

 Jon was going to do a monster on one side and a normal pumpkin face on the other but ran out of time. 

 These are pictures from our Unofficial Ward Trunk or Treat. Our stake leaders do not allow trunk or treats to be held at the church buildings.  So, for 3 years now we have met at the park near by and had a potluck picnic and then trunk or treat. The last two years it has been on Monday night for FHE. Lots of fun! 

 Peter has been out of town all week so I attended solo. We usually are the ones to host but this year we did it a bit more low key since he was gone and it was great. I had a hard time getting the kids to slow down long enough to take a picture.  When there are swings and slides who has time to pause for pictures. 

 Arabella was able to wear her costume to preschool and to her dance class. 

 Here they are: Joey- Pecos Bill (he has a rattlesnake lasso with a tornado in it's mouth which Peter hooked to a motor so it actually spins- check the legend of Pecos Bill for more details); Arabella is a duck queen not to be confused with a regular queen or a princess; Lily is a fairy and she found the sunglasses as we were walking out the door we just went with it; Jon chose to be a vampire once again. He is a traditional sort of guy.  He did not like the makeup after the first party which I do not have any pictures of so the last two dress up opportunities we did not do the makeup.

 You wouldn't even guess that at 5:15 I realized the kids were in the backyard in the very wet sand box and Arabella had her dress on. We are very grateful for a washing machine and dryer so that in one hour her dress looked as good as new and off we went!

 We went around our neighborhood with some families from church. I was brave and just left the candy bowl on the porch since Peter was still gone. 

We had a great Halloween but I am glad to be able to put away costumes and hopefully stop eating candy!